Fluidic feeding of documents to an exposure station

ABSTRACT

A system wherein documents are presented to an exposure station of reproduction apparatus includes a housing in which a rack for storing documents is located. The rack includes a plurality of pockets in each of which a document may be stored, the rack being movable in a vertical direction so that any one of its pockets may be aligned with an opening in the housing. Fluid streams are used to either move a document in an aligned pocket through the opening and to the exposure station or from the exposure station into the pocket. Copies of documents presented to the exposure station are made by the reproduction apparatus. Adjacent the housing there is located an inverter into which documents from the rack are fluidically fed as desired. Inverted documents are returned to the rack with the assistance of a fluid stream. Inverted documents may be fed to the exposure station to provide duplex copies.

.Iadd.This is a continuation of application for reissue Ser. No.053,864, filed July 2, 1979, now abandoned. .Iaddend.

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 649,371, filed Jan. 15,1976, now abandoned.

The subject invention generally relates to reproduction systems of thetype wherein documents are posed at an exposure station, such as theplaten on which original documents are placed in xerographic copiers orduplicators, and to transports used to register articles carriedthereby, such as disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser.No. 627,571, Pneumatic Registration Apparatus, filed on Oct. 31, 1975,now abandoned and replaced by continuing application Ser. No. 775,508,filed on Mar. 8, 1977, on an invention by Klaus K. Stange, .Iadd.nowU.S. Pat. No. 4,130,274, .Iaddend.and U.S. patent application Ser. No.638,590 Document Handling Apparatus, filed on Dec. 8, 1975, on aninvention by Klaus K. Stange, et al., now U.S. Pat. No. 4,059,260 theapplications being assigned to the assignee herein, Xerox Corporation.

As is well known to those familiar with commercial xerographic copiers,such as the Xerox 4000, copies of documents may be made by placing anoriginal with an image to be copied in contact with a platen, by placinga cover over the located document and platen, and by actuating a buttonwhich initiates a machine cycle to produce a copy. In the machineprocess, a light image of the original is projected onto a chargedphotoconductive surface to produce a charge image and, subsequently, thecharge image is developed with toner. The resulting toner image isthereafter transferred to copy paper and fused, the location of thefused image on the copy paper being dependent on the location of theoriginal document on the platen. Because of this dependency, when it isdesired that the location of a fused image on a copy correspond to thelocation of information on an original document, such document must belocated precisely on a predetermined area of the platen. Obviously, thisis a time-consuming operation. In such systems when it is desired tomake collated copies of a plurality of documents, the cover must belifted at least once for each copying operation or a collator must beused. If duplex copies are required, the cover must be lifted twice toproduce a copy. Indeed, repeated lifting of a cover can be a tiringoperation for a machine operator.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a reproductionsystem for automatically posing or registering documents at an exposurestation.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a reproductionsystem wherein documents are fluidically fed, posed, stored, andinverted.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a reproductionsystem wherein either side of a document may be registered fluidicallyat an exposure station and wherein a copy thereof is provided.

Briefly, the invention herein provides a reproduction system capable ofproviding simplex or duplex copies of documents. Structurally, theinvention may be implemented with (a) reproduction apparatus having anexposure station; (b) a rack having a plurality of pockets for storingdocuments; (c) means for moving any one of the pockets to apredetermined location; (d) fluidic means for moving a document from theexposure station into a pocket at said predetermined location or fromsaid pocket to the exposure station; and (e) means for invertingdocuments in any one of said plurality of pockets.

Additional objects and features of the invention will become apparent byreference to the following description in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a reproduction system, according to theinvention;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of a covered exposure station of the system;

FIG. 3 is a side plan view of the exposure station, taken along line3--3 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view of a movable rack mountedadjacent to the exposure station, generally taken along lines 4--4 inFIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a partial exploded view of a rack;

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of an inverter mounted adjacent to themovable rack, generally taken along lines 6--6 in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the inverter.

Referring to FIG. 1, an embodiment of a reproduction system 10,according to the present invention, includes reproduction apparatus 11which, for example, may be a xerographic machine. Apparatus 11 includesan exposure station 12 having, as best seen in FIGS. 2 and 3, arectangular transparent plate or platen 13, a spaced pair of rectangularbars 14 and 15 fixed to parallel edge sections of the platen and arectangular member 16 fixed to the platen and bar to, amongst otherthings, pivotally support a platen cover 17. Bars 14 and 15perpendicularly abut member 16, and as a result, the arrangementdescribed provides a rectangular document pocket 18 when the cover isclosed. Bar 14 supports a manifold 19 and includes a number of holes 20communicating with the pocket and a chamber of the manifold. Similarly,member 16 supports a manifold 21 and includes a plurality of holes 22communicating with the pocket and a chamber of manifold 21. Manifolds 19and 21 are coupled to pumps 23 and 24, respectively, and as more fullydescribed below are used to provide a fluid stream in the documentpocket 18 for moving documents into registration with bar 14 and member16. Pump 24 is also used for discharging documents from the pocket.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 4, apparatus 11 is stationed adjacent arectangular housing 28 within which there is mounted a rack 29 and meansfor moving the rack up and down 30. Housing 28 includes on a wall 31 ahorizontal opening 32 communicating with document pocket 18, and on awall 33 a horizontally disposed series of slots 34 at the same level asopening 32. Wall 33 supports a manifold 35 having a chambercommunicating with the slot, manifold 35 being coupled by a conduit 36to a reversible pump 37.

Rack 29 is a rectangular structure having a plurality of storage pockets40-44 (not all shown) extending horizontally between walls 31 and 33. Asshown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the rack may be manufactured from plates 45-50(not all shown); pairs of spacers 51-55 and 51a-55a (not all shown)interposed between plates; and means for securing the spacers and platestogether. Typically, the spacers and plates are fixed to each other withan adhesive; but, bolts (not shown) extending vertically through theplates and spacers and nuts cooperating therewith may be used.

The system thus far described may be operated as follows. An operatormay engage handle 25 and lift cover 17 to align on platen 13 a document.After the cover has been closed, a copy may be provided by apparatus 11.Subsequently, pump 37 may be momentarily operated in a vacuum mode andpump 24 may be simultaneously operated in a pressure mode to fluidicallytransfer the exposed document into, for example, storage pocket 41. Rack29 may then be stepped to provide an empty pocket in alignment withdocument pocket 18 and another document may be similarly processed.Since the copies thus provided may be inspected before a document istransferred to the rack, it will be appreciated that the rack may beloaded with documents capable of being reproduced satisfactorily. Ifafter the rack has been loaded a copy of a document therein is required,the storage pocket in which the document is located is aligned with thedocument pocket 18, pump 37 is momentarily operated in a pressure mode,and pumps 23 and 24 are simultaneously actuated in a vacuum mode. As aresult, the document desired is fluidically registered against bar 14and member 16, and a copy may be made. At this point the document may beremoved or returned in a manner such as described above. From theforegoing it will be appreciated that by synchronizing the stepping ofthe rack with the operative states of the pumps the procedure describedmay be used to provide collated copies of stored documents.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 6, below opening 32 on wall 31 there is locateda horizontally disposed series of slots 56 which communicates with thechamber of a manifold 57 coupled to a reversible pump 58. In addition,slots 56 are horizontally aligned with an opening 59 in wall 33. Opening59 communicates with the space within a housing 60 for an inverter 9. Aswill be appreciated, a document in a storage pocket aligned with opening59 may be moved through the opening by the operation of pump 58 in apressure mode and a document returned into the rack through the openingwill be drawn into a pocket by the operation of pump 58 in a vacuummode.

Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, inverter 9 includes a hollow document drum61 having a number of ports 62 extending through its cylindricalsurface. Drum 61 is rotatably mounted on a shaft 63 supporting acylindrical member 64 having a radially projecting land portion and theshaft is supported by the housing 60. The radial portion is in slidingcontact with the inner surface of drum 61 and, as may be seen, member 64provides an arcuate chamber 65 inside the drum. Shaft 63 includes aconduit 66 having axially and radially extending segments. The radialsegments communicate with the chamber 65 and the axial section iscoupled to a vacuum pump 81 which when turned on provides along anarcuate section of the cylindrical surface of the drum a vacuum pressuresuitable for holding documents. The axis of shaft 63 is horizontallydisposed at the same level as an opening in the housing 60 and opening59, and above and below the opening there is mounted, respectively,vacuum rollers 67 and 68. Rollers 67 and 68 are similar to the vacuumdrum and are similarly mounted so as to be capable of providing alongfacing arcuate sections a vacuum pressure. The rollers and the drumdiffer in that the drum is larger and its arcuate vacuum sectionsubtends a larger number of degrees. Housing 60 also supports a pair ofidler rollers 69 and 70 which are equidistant from an imaginary planepassing through the axis and opening 86 and are located on a region ofdrum 61 furthest from the vacuum rollers 67 and 68. In addition, housing60 also supports a pair of drive rollers 71 and 72. Drive roller 71,idler roller 69, and vacuum roller 67 support a porous belt 92 incontact with an arcuate path adjacent drum 61; and drive roller 72,idler roller 70, and vacuum roller 68 support another porous belt 93 incontact with another arcuate path adjacent drum 61. The drive rollers 71and 72, the document drum, and the vacuum rollers 67 and 68 aremechanically linked to a power source 91 such that belt sections incontact with drum 61 move therewith with the same tangential velocityand, therefore, it will be appreciated that the vacuum rollers alwaysrotate in opposite directions. A pair of guide members 75 and 76 arelocated adjacent to the belts 92 and 93, respectively, in the regionbetween the vacuum rollers and the drum to assist documents moving to oraway from the drum.

Operatively, if no vacuum pressure is applied to roller 68 by pump 82and vacuum pressure is supplied to roller 67 by pump 83, when a documententers the inverter 9, as indicated by arrow 80 in FIG. 6, vacuumpressure provided through belt 92 moves the document against the belt,and the document is guided into contact with drum 61. In FIG. 6 drumrotates counter clockwise and moves the document around. As the leadingedge of the document disengages from belt 92, it is held to the drum byvacuum and is subsequently engaged by belt 93. Thereafter, the documentis guided towards vacuum roller 68. With no vacuum pressure at roller 67and vacuum pressure at roller 68, the document is fed back into apocket, the document having been inverted.

From the foregoing it should be noted that rack may be stepped so as toalign any of its pockets with opening 59 to invert stored documents andthat the inverted documents may be exposed in apparatus 11. Thus, thesystem described may be used to provide duplex copies. Further, itshould be noted that if openings 32 and 59 are located at suitablevertical levels copying and inverting operations may be executed atabout the same time, thereby expediting the production of duplex copies.

As is apparent from the description set forth above, drive 30 must becapable of moving the rack 29 in increments related to the distancebetween pockets of the rack. As is well known to those skilled in theelevator and related arts, this may be accomplished with motors,pulleys, and sensors, or with rack and pinion drives.

It is to be understood that the description herein of a preferredembodiment, according to the invention, has been set forth as an examplethereof and is not to be construed or interpreted to provide limitationson the claims which follow and define the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. Apparatus for storing and feeding selected sidesof selected documents to and from an exposure station for copying theselected documents comprising:(a) xerographic reproduction apparatushaving an exposure station including a document exposure platen andliftable platen cover means for covering said platen and for providing adocument exposure pocket over said platen; (b) a rack having a pluralityof superposed storage pockets for individually storing documents; (c)means for moving a selected one of said storage pockets to apredetermined location adjacent said document exposure station; (d)fluidic means for fluidicly moving a selected document into and out ofone side of a selected said storage pocket into and out of said documentexposure pocket over said platen for copying without lifting said platencover means; and (e) inverting means for inverting documents in anyselected one of said plurality of storage pockets; (f) wherein saidinverting means for fluidicly moving a selected document in and out of aselected storage pocket at a different side of said storage pocket thanthe side thereof utilized in said movement into and out of said documentexposure pocket, and for inverting the document so moved so as to allowsaid document copying and inverting operations to be executed at aboutthe same time, thereby expediting the production of duplex copies, andso that both sides of a selected document may be copied on said platenwithin said document exposure pocket formed by said platen cover meanswithout lifting said platen cover means. .Iadd.
 2. Apparatus for storingand feeding documents to and from an exposure station for providing areproduction system capable of providing simplex or duplex copies of thedocuments comprising:(a) reproduction apparatus having an exposurestation including a document exposure platen and liftable platen covermeans for covering said platen; (b) storage means for storing aplurality of documents; (c) means for incrementally, in steps, movingdocuments out of said storage means to said exposure station at saidplaten to make a copy of the document without lifting said platen covermeans, and then returning the document to said storage means, to makecollated copies of said plurality of documents; and (d) inverting meansfor individually inverting said documents; (e) wherein said invertingmeans, said storage means and said means for moving documents providefor said document copying and inverting operations to be executed atabout the same time, thereby expediting the production of duplex copies,and so that said inverted documents may be fed to said exposure stationto provide duplex copies without lifting said platen cover means..Iaddend. .Iadd.3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said reproductionapparatus is a xerographic copier or duplicator. .Iaddend. .Iadd.4. Theapparatus of claim 2 wherein said documents are returned from saidexposure station to said storage means after being copied on one sideand then back to said exposure station to provide duplex copies..Iaddend. .Iadd.5. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said storage meansstores said plurality of documents in superposed fashion and whereinsaid means for moving documents out of said storage means to saidexposure station serially delivers the documents to said exposurestation. .Iaddend. .Iadd.6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein saiddocuments are returned from said exposure station to said storage meansafter being copied on one side and then back to said exposure station toprovide duplex copies. .Iaddend. .Iadd.7. The apparatus of claim 2wherein said storage means is a single, integral storage member adaptedto receive, hold and maintain the documents superposed in an originalorder both before and after said document copying and said documentinverting. .Iaddend. .Iadd.8. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein saidstorage means has at least one document storage tray. .Iaddend. .Iadd.9.The apparatus of claim 2 wherein said storage means has at least onedocument storage tray and wherein said means for moving documentsincludes means for individually feeding a document from said documentstorage tray to said exposure station of said copier for making a copyof one side thereof and for returning said document back to the samesaid document tray after it has been so copied. .Iaddend. .Iadd.10. Theapparatus of claim 2 wherein said inverting means provides for copyingof both sides of said documents by moving each document through anarcuate inverting path after it has been copied on one side and beforethe other side thereof is copied and returning said document to saidstorage means. .Iaddend. .Iadd.11. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein saidinverting means returns the documents back to said storage means, afterone side thereof has been copied at said exposure station, in theiroriginal order therein but inverted. .Iaddend. .Iadd.12. The apparatusof claim 2 wherein said storage means is a single, integral storagemember adapted to receive, hold and maintain the documents superposed inan original order both before and after said document copying and saiddocument inverting, and wherein said storage means has at least onedocument storage tray, and said means for moving documents includesmeans for individually feeding a document from said document storagetray to said exposure station of said copier for making a copy of oneside thereof and for returning said document back to the same saiddocument tray after it has been so copied on one side and before theother side thereof is copied, and wherein said inverting means providesfor copying of both sides of said documents by moving each documentthrough an arcuate inverting path after it has been copied on one sideand before the other side thereof is copied and returning said documentsto said storage means in their original order therein but inverted..Iaddend. .Iadd.13. A collating document feeder for sequentiallypresenting the respective pages of a multi-page document to aconvenience copier, the document having a plurality of sheets definingfirst and second opposing faces, the copier including means forgenerating duplex copies on a flat support having first and secondopposite faces; said feeder comprising:a document supply including meansfor receiving and supporting the document sheets with the pages in anoriginal order; means for circulating and recirculating the respectivesheets seriatim, removing the sheets one-after-another from said supply,presenting the removed sheets for copying and returning the copiedsheets to said supply in the original order; means for inverting thedocument sheets to present the first and second faces of the sheets forcopying during circulation and recirculation of the sheets; and meanscoordinating said circulating and recirculating means and said invertingmeans for producing collated duplex copies having pages corresponding inorder to the original order of the multi-page document. .Iaddend..Iadd.14. The collating document feeder of claim 13 wherein saiddocument supply comprises means for storing the document sheets insuperposed fashion. .Iaddend. .Iadd.15. The collating document feeder ofclaim 13 wherein said document supply is a single integral documentstorage means adapted to receive hold and maintain the document sheetssuperposed in an original order before and after said circulating..Iaddend. .Iadd.16. The collating document feeder of claim 13 whereinsaid circulating and recirculating means and said inverting meansreturns each document sheet to said document supply after it has beencopied on one side and inverted and before the other side thereof iscopied. .Iaddend. .Iadd.17. The collating document feeder of claim 13wherein said circulating and recirculating means and said invertingmeans executes said copying and inverting operations at about the sametime. .Iaddend. .Iadd.18. The collating document feeder of claim 13wherein said inverting means provides for copying of both faces of saiddocument sheets by moving each document sheet through an arcuateinverting path after it has been copied on one face and before the otherface thereof is copied and returning said document sheet to saiddocument supply. .Iaddend. .Iadd.19. The collating document feeder ofclaim 13 wherein said inverting means returns the sheets to saiddocument supply, after said copying presentation of one face thereof, intheir original sheet order therein but inverted. .Iaddend. .Iadd.20. Thecollating document feeder of claim 13 wherein said document supply is asingle intergral document storage means adapted to receive hold andmaintain the document sheets superposed in an original order before andafter said circulating, and wherein said document supply has at leastone document sheet storage tray, and wherein said copier has a singledocument exposure station, and said circulating and recirculating meansincludes means for individually feeding a document sheet from saiddocument sheet storage tray to said exposure station of said copier formaking a copy of one side thereof and for returning said document sheetback to the same said document sheet storage tray after it has been socopied, and wherein said circulating and recirculating means and saidinverting means executes said copying and inverting operations at aboutthe same time, and wherein said inverting means moves each documentsheet through an arcuate inverting path after it has been copied on oneface and before the other face thereof is copied to return said documentsheets to said document supply after said copying presentations of oneface thereof in their original sheet order in said document supply butinverted. .Iaddend. .Iadd.21. The collating document feeder of claim 13wherein said document supply has at least one document sheet storagetray. .Iaddend. .Iadd.22. The collating document feeder of claim 21wherein said copier has a single document exposure station, and saidcirculating and recirculating means includes means for individuallyfeeding a document sheet from said document sheet storage tray to saidexposure station of said copier for making a copy of one side thereofand for returning said document sheet back to the same said documentsheet storage tray after it has been so copied. .Iaddend. .Iadd.23. Thecollating document feeder of claim 22 wherein said document sheet isreturned to said document sheet storage tray between said presentationsof said first and second faces thereof. .Iaddend. .Iadd.24. Thecollating document feeder of claim 22 wherein said document sheet isreturned to said document sheet storage tray inverted from its originalorientation therein by said inverting means. .Iaddend. .Iadd.25. Thecollating document feeder of claim 13 wherein said copier has a singleexposure station, and said circulating and recirculating means presentseach document sheet to said exposure station of said copier for saidcopying. .Iaddend. .Iadd.26. The collating document feeder of claim 25wherein said circulating and recirculating means and said invertingmeans includes means for automatically presenting to said exposurestation the first faces and then the second faces of said documentsheets, with said copying and inverting operations being executed atabout the same time, thereby expediting the production of duplex copies..Iaddend.